https://phys.org/space-news/planetary-sciences/ en-us Planetary science and exoplanets exploration news stories and features from Phys.org After decades of analyzing reams of lunar rocks back here on Earth, the canonical view of the moon was that it was anhydrous; that it had extraordinarily little water. That all began to change in 2009 with new data from NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and the much-ballyhooed evidence of water ice in the moon's permanently shaded polar regions (PSRs). https://phys.org/news/2026-07-moon-chemically-bound-deep-interior.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 13 Jul 2026 22:20:01 EDT news703154539 Scientists have detected evidence of landslides on Pluto for the first time. A paper published in the journal Icarus reports that images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft during a flyby revealed six large landslides in three impact craters. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-massive-landslides-icy-pluto.html Astrobiology Mon, 13 Jul 2026 15:30:02 EDT news703172932 The planets that appear most common in the universe could have a lot of water—but it could be hiding where telescopes can't detect it, according to a new study led by scientists with the University of Chicago. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-distant-exoplanets-webb-telescope.html Astronomy Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:00:01 EDT news703166987 A giant mirror to create "sunlight on demand" was just approved by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), despite opposition from astronomers and the public, and real safety concerns. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-giant-space-mirror-sunlight-demand.html Space Exploration Mon, 13 Jul 2026 11:07:02 EDT news703159573 There's a bit of a historical mystery surrounding the star Theta Eridani. Ptolemy in the second century A.D. and al-Sufi in A.D. 964 both recorded Theta Eridani as one of the 13 brightest stars in the sky. Hipparchus may have said the same. But there's a problem. For it to be one of the 13 brightest, it had to be much more luminous than it is today. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ancient-astronomers-theta-eridani-brighter.html Astronomy Fri, 10 Jul 2026 19:20:01 EDT news702901141 Ever so slightly bigger than Earth, the exoplanet LHS 3844b orbits its parent star, LHS 3844, a red dwarf 48.5 light-years from our solar system. Its rotational speed mirrors its orbital speed. The result? One side of LHS 3844b is perpetually bathed in scorching sunlight, locked into a never-ending, blistering hot day, while the other is forever shrouded in darkness so cold that particles are incapable of movement, a state known as absolute zero (zero Kelvin). https://phys.org/news/2026-07-exoplanets-eternal-day-endless-night.html Astrobiology Fri, 10 Jul 2026 11:00:05 EDT news702896075 An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star as part of the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). The newfound alien world, designated NGTS-39 b, is a Jupiter-sized planet with an equilibrium temperature of about 519 K. The discovery was detailed in a paper published July 2 on the preprint server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-jupiter-exoplanet-transiting-sun-star.html Astronomy Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:50:02 EDT news702889542 Sub-Neptunes are the most common type of planet in our galaxy. Bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, these worlds remain deeply mysterious because scientists still do not know what they are made of. What astronomers really want to figure out is their interior composition. They could be rocky planets wrapped in hydrogen-rich atmospheres, or they could be volatile-rich worlds loaded with water or carbon-bearing molecules. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-reveal-clouds-hidden-interiors.html Astronomy Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:00:03 EDT news702888098 Stars like our sun are formed from the collapse of stellar objects called prestellar cores, cold and dense concentrations of gas and dust held together by gravity. While many questions remain about the exact mechanisms of star formation, advanced radio telescopes have given researchers new insights into the inner workings of infant stars. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-capturing-cosmic-drift-star-born.html Astronomy Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:00:02 EDT news702801778 We've talked plenty of times here about the infeasibility of launching a mirror big enough to directly image exoplanets using current rocket fairings—at least as long as we're not sending them 500-plus AU away to a gravitational lensing point. We've also talked at length about the potential solution to that problem—interferometry, where multiple smaller satellites link up precisely but are spaced far enough apart to act as one gigantic mirror. The problem is, from a technical standpoint, it's really hard to build these kinds of systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-smart-ruler-swarms-space-telescopes.html Astronomy Thu, 09 Jul 2026 15:40:05 EDT news702823692 This close-up view shows fragments of sulfur crystals, the first ever seen on the Red Planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-image-curiosity-rover-martian-sulfur.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 09 Jul 2026 14:32:20 EDT news702826315 The young planetary system of the 23-million-year-old star Beta Pictoris (short: Beta Pic) is regarded as an iconic circumstellar dust disk, which hosts at least three giant gas planets. Discovered in 2008 by direct imaging, Beta Pic b is the most massive of those planets, measuring approximately 11 Jupiter masses. It orbits its host star on a wide trajectory, taking about 23 years for one revolution. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-young-giant-gas-planet-beta.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 09 Jul 2026 04:00:02 EDT news702700691 A new Southwest Research Institute-led study proposes a solution to a longstanding puzzle in planetary science: What caused the concentration, assembly, and preservation of millimeter-sized, spherical mineral grains within the parent bodies of the most common meteorites? The work is published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-primordial-mini-moons-meteorite-composition.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 08 Jul 2026 18:20:01 EDT news702746073 Scientists from Queen's University Belfast have led an international team in the discovery of a rare new planet, which is larger than Jupiter and orbits a distant star every 180 days. Named NGTS-38 b, it is an exoplanet—a planet that orbits a star beyond our solar system. It is about 8% larger than Jupiter and almost five times more massive. Planets of this size and mass are often referred to as "super-Jupiters." https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-rare-super-jupiter-planet.html Astronomy Wed, 08 Jul 2026 16:40:02 EDT news702737535 Building material samples from the University of Delaware spent six months mounted outside the International Space Station, where the harsh conditions of low Earth orbit tested their limits. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-lab-moon-lunar-cement-alternative.html Space Exploration Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:00:03 EDT news702724623 Hayabusa 2's primary mission is now well in the past. JAXA's asteroid-sampling spacecraft rendezvoused with asteroid Ryugu in June 2018. It studied the asteroid for 1.5 years and gathered a sample that was returned to Earth in December 2020. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-success-hayabusa-flyby-asteroid-torifune.html Space Exploration Wed, 08 Jul 2026 08:40:04 EDT news702718622 When it comes to the search for life elsewhere in the universe, methane and other chemical compounds are seen as signs of biology because they are often produced by living microbes. However, scientists can be misled because certain geological processes can produce chemical signatures identical to those of living organisms. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-baseline-tool-alien-life-geology.html Astrobiology Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:30:01 EDT news702646858 Like a shelf in an old house, the Earth collects a lot of dust from its surroundings. This "space dust" is mostly made up of micrometeorites that survive atmospheric entry and provides researchers with a cheap and easy way to obtain samples to study our cosmic neighbors. However, it can be difficult to determine which objects certain samples originated from if their parent bodies aren't already in available catalogs. A recent study, published in Science Advances, describes a new subset of space dust with such mysterious origins and how researchers are tracking down potential sources. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-earth-space-unidentified-asteroids.html Astrobiology Tue, 07 Jul 2026 12:50:02 EDT news702646844 Where does the solar system end and interstellar space begin? That's a question scientists have been working to answer using spacecraft traveling beyond the sun's influence. A team of researchers from the Southwest Research Institute, led by Heather Elliott, is using the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument aboard New Horizons to track the solar wind in the outer reaches of the solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-horizons-solar.html Astronomy Tue, 07 Jul 2026 09:00:02 EDT news702624421 Last year, an interstellar traveler entered our solar system. Some speculated that it was an alien spacecraft, but it turned out to be a comet, 3I/Atlas, and it provoked interest from astronomers and astrophysicists eager for insights into galaxies far, far away. Detailed observations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shot down the alien spacecraft idea, but recent NASA analysis holds clues about the comet's ancient and, literally, alien origins. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-interstellar-comet-universe-cosmic-noon.html Astronomy Mon, 06 Jul 2026 22:20:01 EDT news702543074 A new Southwest Research Institute-led study compared eight AI-generated lunar crater catalogs, discovering that many of their published performance metrics drop sharply when the databases are evaluated using the same scientific standards humans are held to. Crater catalogs provide a comprehensive record of impact craters on planetary surfaces. They log the precise location, dimensions and physical characteristics of impact structures to help scientists understand the geological history of the solar system and its components. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-discrepancies-ai-lunar-crater.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 06 Jul 2026 12:40:01 EDT news702552476 In the course of studying planets beyond our solar system (6,316 confirmed exoplanets and counting), scientists have discovered some very interesting systems. Consider TOI-201, a compact system populated by three bodies, including a brown dwarf, orbiting on the same plane. The system was recently observed by an international team led by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-characterize-improbable-brown-dwarf.html Astronomy Mon, 06 Jul 2026 12:00:01 EDT news702552273 Rare images taken by a Japanese space probe during a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid have revealed that the space rock resembled a snowman, scientists said Monday. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-japan-snowman-asteroid-image-flyby.html Space Exploration Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:10:11 EDT news702554975 Astronomers have used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) to study the composition of 3I/ATLAS, the brightest interstellar object ever seen, in detail. By measuring specific chemical fingerprints—the first observations of this kind for a comet that formed outside the solar system—they found that 3I/ATLAS likely originated in the outskirts of an old star system. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-older-sun-astronomers-clues-interstellar.html Astronomy Mon, 06 Jul 2026 08:03:06 EDT news702543737 China's Tianwen-2 space probe, which is set to bring back samples from an asteroid for research, has reached its target after traveling 1 billion kilometers (620 million miles) over more than a year, the Chinese space agency said Monday. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-china-space-probe-asteroid-billion.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 06 Jul 2026 04:17:17 EDT news702530194 Comets have played an interesting role in the history of astronomy. Since antiquity, many cultures saw them as omens or spirits, portending good or bad news for kings, queens and emperors. Over the past few hundred years, however, astronomers have studied them intently to understand the science behind these visitors to the inner solar system. Today, we know that these ghostly apparitions in the sky are dirty balls of ice and rock blasting through space, scattering dust and gases as they go. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-deuterium-comets-tales.html Planetary Sciences Sun, 05 Jul 2026 14:40:01 EDT news701946192 Dust devils are a regular feature on Mars. Just like those found on Earth, these mini whirlwinds form when parts of Mars are warmed by the sun, causing air above the surface to swirl upward and carry dust with it. But in Mars' lower gravity (38% that of Earth), these devils grow much larger, reaching up to 8 km (5 miles) in height and speeds of up to 45 meters per second (150 feet per second). They are also a major part of Mars' meteorological cycles, playing a key role in distributing dust across the planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-mars-captures-dozens-devils-valley.html Planetary Sciences Sun, 05 Jul 2026 13:00:02 EDT news701955284 A Japanese space probe performed a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday in a test mission for technology that could help protect the planet from space rocks. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-japan-space-probe-skims-asteroid.html Space Exploration Sun, 05 Jul 2026 10:30:12 EDT news702466184 Astronomers have uncovered a pair of giant planets that are lighter than cotton candy—super-puffs the size of Jupiter. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-astronomers-biggest-super-puff-planets.html Astronomy Sun, 05 Jul 2026 04:40:01 EDT news701581244 Planets beyond our solar system can have magnetic fields similar to those closer to home, astronomers said Tuesday after observing extreme winds on scorching worlds known as "hot Jupiters." https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hot-jupiter-reveal-exoplanet-magnetic.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 03 Jul 2026 11:10:02 EDT news699678128